My Goal: Too much prejudice in this world - and not just racial. Religious and especially political prejudice is more prevalent and more harmful. The blogosphere has added to that and I want to subtract from it.

Here's some of my life and the things I'm interested in. You can find more info in my Permanent File. Click on the Categories under Blog Index to the Right.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Sam Sloan, member of the USCF Executive Board announced that he will attend the National Elementary School Championships in Nashville May 11-13. Susan Polgar announced that she will attend but only to do scheduled commitments and will leave before round 1. Her children will not attend the event at all. One of them is the National 2nd. Grade Champion. Since no one knows if Sloan will actually attend this event, I tried to put things into perspective by posting the below on the USCF Forum.

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I am very concerned at the direction that this affair has taken. Sam Sloan has just become a very powerful man in the USCF and he has been handed that power not by ignorant voters, not by leaders like Bill Goichberg or Don Schultz, not by forum moderators anonymous or otherwise, no not by any of those parties. Those who have chosen to curtail their involvement on a specific event based only upon a Sloan announcement have done so.

Sam Sloan now has the power to cast a cloud upon any children's event in the United States by the mere ANNOUNCEMENT that he will attend it. He does not have to actually show up. In fact, he does not even have to try to show up. He does not have to even intend to show up. No, all he has to do is SAY that he will show up.

A mere few seconds at a computer keyboard, a move of the mouse to the "submit" button, a click - and the job is done. An event tarnished, a kid's dream broken, a childhood experience denied. In the fictional realms of sword and sorcery, even the use of a magic wand would have taken longer.

This is the reality that we now face. Does anybody want to take bets on whether, after all this thread's gas and fire, Sam Sloan will ever actually show up? If you really had a chance to bet serious money, would you do so?

Pulling out after SS actually shows would be one thing. To announce in advance that one will alter plans and curtail participation due to SS's mere announcement is another.